The Balkan tourist destination stands in the way of MASS TOURISM: Here are the measures they are bringing

Residents of Split in Croatia want to change the image of their city as an entertainment destination and replace noisy tourists with decent families.

Split has long had a reputation as a place to party, but locals have lost patience with the drunken tourists who flock to this seaside town for music festivals like Ultra Europe.

“A lot of younger people come for that, they’re not customers, they’re just here for fun and alcohol, not for the islands or the tours,” says Vana, an employee of a cruise company.

That’s not the only way these tourists affect the local economy. Short-term visitors, who stay for only a few months, have sharply increased rents in Split, which now amount to between 700 and 800 euros. Considering that the average monthly salary is around 1,000 euros, this is a big burden for those who live here.

“It is increasingly difficult for younger people to find an apartment, start a life or start a family,” says Vana. Although renting out apartments during the winter brings in extra income, it boomerangs back in the summer when “it gets really expensive,” she adds.

The city also had to increase the number of security and police personnel to “monitor anti-social behavior such as drinking alcohol in public places, urinating or shirtless people.”

“We don’t want to be known as an entertainment destination. The hedonistic image of Split is not only an economic burden, it undermines the city’s identity. “There used to be more restaurants, bars and cafes that served local food, but now they mostly have tourist food,” says Veronika, who works in a day tour company.

“Split has changed a lot in the last 10 years,” agrees Luce, another tour guide. “There were many more local cafes and restaurants on the waterfront. Now everything is Italian food, burgers and the like, although Croats are the best in Croatian food. The area around Diocletian’s Palace used to have small independent shops, now they are mostly apartments that are rented out to tourists for short stays,” he adds.

Family or youth tourism?

However, workers in tourism also recognize the good sides of this trend.

“Tourism in Split is, on the one hand, very good, especially in the Old Town and Diocletian’s Palace, which has been 95 percent renovated, so it now looks like new,” says Ivana, a receptionist at a boarding house. “However, the bad thing is that the people who used to live in the Old Town, in the old apartments, don’t live there anymore.”

Veronika links this change to an influx of “younger tourists, who all come for the music festivals” – causing locals to leave and prices to rise.

“Locals don’t like going out to the city center anymore because it’s crowded and expensive. We are mostly scattered all over Split, outside the city center,” she says, adding that it wasn’t always like that: “Before, there were many nice, decent tourists with families – we love such tourists, we don’t have a problem with them.”

But this summer, such tourists were absent. While the apartments, hostels and motels were full, “the hotels were a little emptier, because there were fewer high-class tourists,” says Veronika.

‘We are almost completely dependent on tourism’

Regardless of how tourists behave, it is undeniable that Split depends on them.

“We are almost entirely dependent on tourism, which is not very good, but it is what it is,” a local shopkeeper told Euronews Travel. “There are several problems in the Old Town. Either there are many people in the summer or there is no one in the winter, there is almost no middle ground.”

Many local residents make most of their annual income during the summer season, which helps them get through the quieter winter months, when there are significantly fewer businesses and almost no tourists.

“We sell them expensive boat tours, for the price of which they can buy plane tickets and accommodation,” says Kristina, an employee of a cruise company. “Even if the city wants to reduce the number of tourists, there is too much support from bars and restaurants,” Veronika adds.

“So, that’s the difference – in some cases you gain something, and in others you lose,” says Ivana. “We don’t have the same opinion as Spain or other countries, because tourism in Split only started about 16 years ago. So we love tourists here.”